Waitangi Day...

Today is a national holiday here in New Zealand.

If you want to know more, have a look here.

Of course, that means a day off work.  Tony and I agreed that we would spend the day at home together pottering in our craft rooms.

I spent most of the morning trotting between the kitchen and my room as I had another pan of relish burbling away on the stove.

Courgette and capsicum this time.

 While that did it's thing in the kitchen, I made three orange butterflies for the RSC.

 I wasn't sure I would be able to find enough orange for this months blocks, and was amazed to find three of them hiding amid my scraps and larger off cuts.

Once that was done and the completed blocks were tucked away safely in their box, I turned to my other scrap project.

My flip flop scraps are growing. Yesterday before work I had pressed the most recent seams and prepared the blocks for the next row of fabrics. They were sewn on this morning, while the relish continued to bubble away.

I even had time to tuck them away into a new box before I had to return to the kitchen.

So, about the box. When I visited Janice last year I noted that she had some very pretty boxes with fabrics and things stashed away in them.

They looked so lovely, I wanted me some of those. So I started to visit the dollar stores and now have just enough for my projects....well, maybe I'll need a couple more! LOL

 I fell in love with this one, those pretty greeny blue feathers will keep my flip flop scraps tidily tucked away.

Here are the others, all tidily piled in the corner, keeping their projects safe.

The blue feathers fit under the pink seahorse. It's a little larger than I realised, but thats OK, those scrappy blocks will become quite big.

Sew, with that comleted I headed back to the kitchen to find my relish ready to go into hot jars.

I now have nine jars cooling in the kitchen. 

This afternoon I plan to spend in the sitting room, I might invite Sir David Attenborough and the Natural World to join me as I work on this months secret Christmas project.

But before I do that, I just remembered I promised that I would share my I Stitch block for February.

Did I tell you that the name of the finished quilt will be Wish You Well.

I have again used my precious Fig Tree Fabrics off cuts and left overs. I don't think I'll get away with using just leftovers and had a dig through my stash of figgy fabrics and pulled out some fat quarters to add to the pile.

This project and it's wee collection of fabrics lives in the poppy box, under the pink one where the finished butterflies are hibernating.

Typical, just as I'm about to move out of this seat, she moves in!

Too bad kitty kat! My hip is sore and it's time to move!